Missile Happy! - Volume 1 Review

Just another day in the land of shojo.

Over the summer, a friend of mine asked if I'd be interested in job reviewing shojo manga - all of the magical girl, high-school romance, emotionally trancendental stuff. I said no - not because I don't enjoy reading it, not because I'm not a fan and certainly not because I disagree with most narratives based on some Western neo-feminist ideals because I don't. Basically, what it boils down to for me, is that sometimes, reviewing shojo manga is really, really difficult. Unlike Western comics, which are, for the most part, plot driven, Japanese comics are very much character driven. And in a genre like shojo, where emotion takes center stage, it's always the protagonist's unreigned yearning that drives the story - yearning to fit in, yearning to get the attention of a certain guy, yearning for a family. For the most part, these emotions can overwhelm and obscure the storyline, forcing the plot into a supporting role - but only when it's well done.

The first volume of Missile Happy is well done with Kiritani seemlessly introducing the stories protagonists, the initial conflict, the development of the relationship. The pacing is solid, the artwork professional, the characters fleshed out and empathetic. High-school protagonist Mikako, feeling protective of her older sister, conducts an in depth background check of one of her sister's prospective husbands (moves in with him) and ends up falling in love. It's simple, streamlined, romance and it works. It's also unoriginal, redundant, and the same female romance fantasy packaged in familiar wrapping. (This is another reason why I'm not crazy about reviewing shojo manga; I feel obligated to say something critical, to point out certain flaws that it may have so that I don't sound like a mindless shojo manga cheerleader.) There is, however, something to be said of the female romance fantasy, essentially the foundation of shojo and the reason why its made its way so far in Japan - as well as France, Italy, Germany, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and the U.S. (to name a few). It's a damn good fantasy and one that I don't mind reading or re-reading or re-re-reading at that.

What it comes down to, ultimately, is that we are really lucky, as western readers of manga, to be on this side of the market. Just think of all the garbage that we don't have to wade through - urologist manga, or really phreaky moe. At this point, with the amount of manga that's saturating bookstores and comic shops alike, a book like Missile Happy volume 1, is a subtle reminder that there is still good stuff to mine from the stashes of old Japan.